Reasoning and Mental Representation
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TL;DR
Four experiments exploring the effects of the coherence of a mental representation of material on reasoning performance are presented and it is postulated that the crucial factor influencing performance is a unified representation of the material.
Abstract
Four experiments exploring the effects of the coherence of a mental representation of material on reasoning performance are presented. Each employs a simple task that allows most subjects at some stage to solve the problem. We postulate that the crucial factor influencing performance is a unified representation of the material. In Experiment 1 we use an authorization of a kind familiar in daily life, and in Experiments 2, 3 and 4 we use sentences describing simple objects in different ways. In each case performance was enhanced when the material could be given a unified representation.